Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Review of Sophia's Secret by Susanna Kearsley

Sophia's Secret, also known as The Winter Sea, is written by popular Romance writer Susanna Kearsley.

I had the privilege of attending a workshop given by Kearsley at the Surrey International Writer's Conference this year. She was a really great presenter - very organized, engaging and she even distributed hand outs!

Sophia's Secret is only the second book I have read of Kearsley, Marianne is the first one I read, but it seems like most of the author's novels share a similar plot: that is, that a contemporary female protagonist stumbles upon a historical event. In doing so, she becomes involved in an entwining of past and present.

In Sophia's Secret, writer Carrie is inexplicably drawn to Slains Castle in Scotland, as well as to the two Keith brothers Stuart and Graham. Carrie is surprised that the scenes she writes from her own imagination of the Jacobite Uprising in 1708 are historically accurate. Can it be she shares the memories of her ancestor Sophia that she is writing about?

I like this book especially because of the way Kearsley portrays the writer's life and craft.